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Sunday, November 28, 2010

When I first heard there would be a new Mickey Mantle autobiography, I cringed a little.
I've read The Mick and All My Octobers and countless narratives and analytical articles dedicated to Mantle's greatness, his faults and his superhuman prowess.

Leavy's episodic approach to Mantle rightly presumes that her readers
are already familiar with the ending of his story, relieving the
narrative of the suspension of disbelief quality that so often makes
biographies and histories stogy. This approach also allows Last Boy
to become equal parts anthropology and media study, exploring the
reasons the nation, especially the baby bombers, embraced the myth of
Mantle so readily, and how the cozy relationship between the sports
writers and the players allowed Mantle to hide his worst qualities and
magnify he best.

For example, Chapter 6 (a personal favorite) explores "tape measure
home run" Mantle drove out of Griffith Stadium in 1953. Section 1 sets
the scene: a brief history and description of Griffith Stadium, the
pitch and the flight of the ball, and Yankee PR Director Arthur
Patterson's account of finding the ball. Section 2 begins the long
search for Donald Dunaway, the "surprised and delighted Negro lad" from
Patterson's story. Section 3 completes the Dunaway quest, filling in his
background and laying out his version of the story. In Section 4, Leavy
brings in a leading physicist to evaluate the possible trajectories of
the ball.

Last Boy is a fantastic read, hard to put down, and with an
interesting insight or anecdote on every page. Add to that the
refreshing quality of the narrative, and the real work and exploration
done by Leavy, and this may become the classic book about Mantle, the
people who loved him, and the fans who adored him.

What was your favorite part of Last Boy? What didn't you like? Did you learn anything new, or was anything put in a fresh perspective?

I thought the exploration of Mantle's relationship with the media was
one of the most insightful aspects of the book- the way it allowed
Mantle to get away with anything, and fed his personal disregard for
social niceties.